Age-Related Aches and Pains

Gentlemen,

I just wonder what the consensus is here as to when you really start to feel your age when doing the more arduous DIY tasks? Personally up to age 50 I always felt as physically strong as I was at

25, but since hitting the half-century I'm sure I've lost some strength by an unquantifiable percentage over the intervening years. And now at 56 I'm finding doing DIY related tasks for a full 8hr day more and more knackering and ache+pain inducing. I'm just wondering if I'm alone! Your experience?
Reply to
Cursitor Doom
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I find that at 66, half a day or so of "average" DIY is about right.

Personally, I find half a day of writing or desk based consultancy work equally tiring.

I think one gets better with age/experience at pacing and prioritising. I very seldom set deadlines.

Reply to
newshound

I do three hours now and I'm as physically tired as I used to be, ten years ago, after eight hours.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

I'm 47. I would add a caveat that I'm too round. It's genetic. And I like food and beer.

Anyway - I could be fitter, but I'm not bad. My only two concerns are knees get a bit crunchy but I find they get completely better if I do a course of glucosamine and gym work on the bikes seem to do them the power of good.

The other is I had a double hernia fix - left inguinal and belly button

- that latter was not what I went for and I did not even realise, but the bloke noticed when he prodded pre-keyhole surgery. He offered to fix that as he was going in that way anyway - it was very minor.

The former is great. The latter does worry me - get a fair few twinges of late across the front of my guts, but I am undecided if that's just scar tissue pulling. GP can only find the merest hint of any problem and isn't bothered.

So my game plan is to lose several stone. Reckon that will sort out everything.

I was never much for endurance - I'm more of a diesel - a plodder. I do not go fast at anything but I keep going when I've started, so I cannot comment too much on relative fitness.

But as I can knock my heart upto to 150 odd without feeling weird in the gym, I count my blessings as there's others far worse off.

Reply to
Tim Watts

I, too, am finding aches and pains accompanying some tasks that used to be easy - but then I'm 75 next month.

Reply to
charles

Well I'm 65 and quite pleased how I'm able to do physical tasks. Historically I've not had a physically demanding job, but since retiring a few years back and taking on a small farm with livestock activity has been a necessity rather than an option! As an example, at the moment I'm having a new pig pen built. Did all the ground works myself, and although I'm paying a brickie, I'm bumping out his bricks ready for the next day, and have been knocking up umpteen mixer loads of screed etc

Not saying that the aches and pains don't occur - they do, but ibuprofen sorts most things out, failing that there's always a stiff Whisky soda :)

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

I've returned to Morris Dancing (seriously!) after a 30 year gap - highly recommended!

Reply to
<no_spam

I'm quite a lot older than that and I do feel the pace more than I used to. I'm also a lot more careful about my back, and injuries generally, because they take a lot longer to mend than when I was younger.

However I feel that "use or lose it" is the watchword and if I'd stopped as soon as the going got tough I'd be in a lot worse shape by now. DIY is a good way of keeping active.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

In article , Cursitor Doom scribeth thus

Much the same here now at 63 the old arthritis is causing a bit of grief some of it dodgy hip joints, runs in the family, but as the doc sez put off having them replaced as long as possible.

But a daily dose of ibuprofen helps keep it in check but no, not quite as energetic and agile as I once was in the early 50's.

Back got a bit buggered in an accident some years ago as did the neck but in that I very nearly died so I'm grateful to be still around.

Welcome to older age mate;!...

Reply to
tony sayer

I had the belly button one done about 20 odd years ago. It took a couple of years before it was really comfortable.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Interesting. I'm N of 60. Still have my own business and work 60h/wk although I'm slowing down a bit now. Weekends I enjoy diy/gardening & general fiddling around. No severe aches/pains except (1) my L hand which I smashed a few years back and (2) fractured hip caused by slipping on snow/ice that had not been cleared by the local council. Some many years ago my father said to me 'I'm struggling to grow old gracefully'. This was only a couple of years after he had his neck broken in a car crash in Bavaria, through no fault of his own. He was 72 then. He got the telegram or whatever from Her Maj and died peacefully a couple of years later. At 80 he received a scam letter from Nigeria and decided that might be a good place to go. Took him 3 months and a night time escapade to depart from Nigeria to, eventually, Abidjan. From here he made his way home. He could bend down and place both palms flat on the floor without bending his knees, right up to a few days before he died. Party trick perhaps but I struggle to get my fingertips to the ground. Sorry for rambling, I guess I'm saying that my old man didn't let age stand in his way. I hope I may be similarly blessed. Nick.

Reply to
Nick

no snipped-for-privacy@thanks.com scribbled

It'll knacker your knees.

Reply to
Jonno

Your typical knee replacement patient is probably twice their ideal weight and hasn't run further than the TV remote control in years.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Tim+ scribbled

You seen the size of morris dancers ? And that's just the wimmin.

Reply to
Jonno

What about us animals ?

Haven't seen that yet.

Haven't noticed that effect. My dad did get me to do some strength requiring stuff when he was in his 80s but I don?t do that and I am heading into my 70s now.

I don?t find that. The last major effort was getting rid of a hell of a lot of dead wood and full dead trees and me and my neighbour who is a bit older than me did that without any real knackering or ache+pain inducing.

See above.

Reply to
john james

I think it really depends on your genes, the work you have done in your life and probably lots of other things. I had my first back issue at 46, and its been an issue ever since. It was down to a childhood fall now showing up due to lack of adjustment as one ages. Things wear, damaged areas get arthritis and stuff. Some people are still fit at 70, after all, which others are already dead or having issues. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

In article , Tim Watts writes

If you're interested, I saw an interesting fat burning tip in a TV prog not long ago. It was that if you do a little bit of interval work (eg.

2mins good exercise followed by 1min rest, repeated for 7 cycles, total 21mins) then it can persuade your metabolism to burn fat for several hours later at a greater rate than the normal rest rate. The overall effect was greater than continuous exercise for 20 mins.

I had previously believed that a decent fat burn required at least 2 hours of exercise, 1 hour to move your body from carb to fat burning with the fat burn becoming predominant in the second hour and thereafter.

Not easy to fit in 2hrs very often but the 20min regime could be fit in quite easily at least every other day.

Weird to hear that your belly button repair is the more problematic as it is a simple closing whereas the inguinal one still needs to retain an annulus for your nad tubes to pass through. The latter is normally done with a loop of kevlar to make it bombproof though.

Reply to
fred

When I was young my best friend was Hugh, I could often be seen leaning out of a window and calling "Hooy", however my best friend now is Arthur Wrightus. Before retiring I would come home from a good days work, change when get straight out into the garden or start decorating. Now 25 years on I am exhausted after a couple of hours. I often wonder if these very fit older people who are still working are fir because they are still working or still working because they are fit.

Reply to
Broadback

I am feeling it now at 44 at work.

Reply to
ARW

I worked as a teacheruntil 2000 (age 54) and when I retired I worked first of all as a handyman and then as a handyman/IT technician at a locan primary school. I retired 4 years ago at 65. I felt fitest when working as a handyman, but in the last year or so I was aware of losing some fitness. Since then I have become noticably less fit and developed muscle and back aches, although I played golf regularly until I caused some knee problems. That was 14 weeks ago and I am still waiting for an appointment for a physio clinic to diagnose the problem (forecast of another 3 or 4 weeks wait)

Malcolm

Reply to
Malcolm Race

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